Set it Right
by Silent Angel
Summary: What if the Kyuubi never attacked Konoha? Just how different would everyone be? - The story of why the demon fox attacked Konoha village. (Pairings: none yet)
1. It's not how I wanted it to be

Prologue  
  
Though he had not been very old at the time, he remembered the incident well. This may have been due to the excitement it raised in the village – mothers huddling around their children and fathers toting kunai and shuriken everywhere led to an atmosphere that would stick out in anybody's mind for a long time. That probably wasn't the case though, he decided while strolling leisurely down the street towards his school. The real cause of the clarity in his memory when it came to that incident was most likely his father's doing.  
  
Ever since he was old enough to listen and understand, and probably before, his father had told him that the two most important things in life were to understand what you didn't care for and to learn all there was to know about what caught your interest. It was good advice, thought Naruto as he fell into step next to Uchiha Sasuke.  
  
The Uchihas were the subject of his thoughts. They were a powerful clan with a bloodline ability – the Sharingan. Their oldest son, Itachi, had been the one to master it, although Sasuke would probably never give up trying to achieve that same goal. Itachi was the cause of the incident, and Sasuke was the reason Naruto had caught interest in it. Itachi was such a powerful person. . . . At the age of ten he became a chuunin, though most were only genins at twelve. Because of this inhuman strength, no one could stop him when he decided to murder the rest of his clan, leaving only his younger brother alive to tell the tale. Naruto glanced at the boy. Sasuke refused to talk about the incident to anyone else, and was reluctant to tall Naruto much either. Finally though, he had admitted that the reason Itachi gave for leaving Sasuke alive was because the boy, no more than a little boy at the time, was too weak. Because of that insult, along with Naruto's own, similarly personel reasons, the two of them trained together every day after school, hoping to exceed everyone else in strength. Today was different though – today was the day their class would take the test to become genins. Naruto had already failed it three times, and hoped to avoid that humiliation this year. Sasuke would never let him live it down otherwise – the Uchiha would probably make some sort of nickname up for him like 'dead last'.  
  
It wasn't like he was even a bad student, Naruto mused as he took his seat in the back of the classroom. He just wasn't good at the jutsus the school wanted him to know. When it came down to creating his own jutsus he was fine – he'd recently perfected the Sexy no Jutsu. He shook his head as he teacher, a young woman who was most decidedly not amused by his 'creativeness' when it came to jutsus, called him to the testing room. He would make it this year.  
  
"Uzumaki Naruto," she started, sighing. She would give anything to pass the kid. He was the Hokage's son for heaven's sake! "I'd like you to perform the Bushin no Jutsu."  
  
Naruto bit his lip. This was it – he had to perform his worst jutsu to pass. Carefully, he made the hand seal, focusing his charka into it. He closed his eyes, clenched his teeth, and said it: "Bushin no Jutsu!"  
  
Peals of laughter forced his eyes open. Nothing had happened. Head bowed, he silently slunk out of the room and school, running only when he'd reached the streets.  
  
***  
  
Nighttime seemed it would never come, but when it finally did, Naruto was prepared. No one had seen him yet since he'd . . . failed. He frowned, sneaking past rows of scrolls, searching for a certain one. The scroll he was searching for was one he knew would help him. His father had almost forbidden it to ever be used – the jutsu it contained were that dangerous. Somewhere in it had to be something that he could learn and show to Iaka- sensei. If he did that, she'd have to pass him.  
  
Finally he found it. Predictably, his father had hidden it to make sure that no one could use it, although it wasn't yet forbidden. However, Naruto knew the mind of the Fourth Hokage as well as his own. There was no place Yondaime could hide this scroll that Naruto wouldn't find it.  
  
Just as carefully, Naruto crept to the Uchiha manor. Sasuke might call him an idiot, but he'd help – especially if it meant learning high level jutsu as well. Besides, there was no other place he could practive with out his father's guards watching him.  
  
After a quick knock at the door, Naruto leapt through the side window that had mysteriously opened. Inside stood Sasuke, ready to slam the window shut in case either of their fan girls followed.  
  
"What are you going to do now, Naruto?"  
  
Naruto growled and threw the scroll at the dark-haired boy. Of course Sasuke would have figured out the cause for his disappearance after the exam. "I suppose you passed."  
  
"No."  
  
Naruto's sharp retort was cut shot as he choked and stared. "What?"  
  
Sasuke shrugged. "I didn't take it. There's nothing they could teach me that we couldn't figure out ourselves." He smirked, tossing the scroll back to the blonde boy, who was still staring in shock. "It looks like I was right. That's the scroll the Hokage almost forbade . . . "  
  
". . . but didn't. I'm going to learn these and pass with special jutsu."  
  
Sasue just raised an eyebrow. "You think you can do that?" Getting no reply, he shook his head. "What are you going to do first?"  
  
"I'll go in order. The hardest ones are probably at the end." Naruto plopped himself down, pulling the scroll open, glancing at it, and grinned. "You want to try, or should I just learn these by myself?"  
  
Rolling his eyes, Sasuke sat down behind Naruto and peered at the markings on the paper. He frowned. Naruto was trying this? "Dobe, you couldn't do Bushin no Jutsu. You really think you can do this?" Neither boy said anything in answer. They knew Naruto would learn the jutsu or at least try until his body gave out, simply because that was the way he was. 'Still,' thought Sasuke, 'to do Kage Bushin no Jutsu. . . .' The Kage Bushin no Jutsu was far more advanced than the Bushin no Jutsu. In the Bushin no Jutsu, one had to use their charka to create clones of themselves, just like in the Kage Bushin no Jutsu. However, Bishin no Jutsu was easier because the clones were insubstantial. The Kage Bushin no Jutsu, however, required that the ninja distribute his charka throughout the clones to make each one solid. Of course, even the most well done clones would disappear in fatally wounded, the least powerful turning into nothing but smoke from a simple nudge. It was still a desirable ability because it made determining the location of the real ninja difficult for the enemy.  
  
"Sasuke, I can do this."  
  
The right at the end of the sentence was left unspoken, but Sasuke could hear it perfectly clearly. "Hai." He smirked. Although Naruto was horrible at school taught jutsu, almost no one was better at controlling their charka, and very few had more of it. One of the jutsu in the scroll would have to have something that would call upon those traits.  
  
Naruto beamed back at him. "Right then! Let's get to work!"  
  
Author's Note: The idea behind this story is that the Kyuubi never attacked the village. Naruto naturally has a lot of charka, I decided after looking through the series, and the fox demon sealed inside him was all that made him so bad at controlling his charka. That he could control it at all means that his control must unnaturally good. About his family, they are never mentioned exactly, so I have to ad lib that. *grins* Luckily, the way I'm setting it up, no matter what the manga or anime say, I'll be fine. His relationship with Sasuke would be much different – since he wouldn't be hated by the villagers, he's most likely have a fan club as well, and the two boys would probably seek each other out. Finally, the scroll of seals wouldn't be forbidden since it wouldn't have the seal to release the fox demon since it was never sealed. By the way, I don't figure that Iruka would be a teacher since his parents wouldn't have died and so he would have had a totally different personality as a child. Well, R&R! Bye!  
  
Akki 


	2. And that way's not for me

"Kage Bushin no Jutsu!"  
  
Five days. It had been five days since anyone had seen either Uzumaki or Uchiha. The only signs that they were still alive, or at least pretending to be holed up in the Uchiha manor as they were, were the unusual cries of words that meant little to most of the younger ninja of the village. Some of the chuunins, most of the jounins, and most definitely the Hokage knew what they meant though when Naruto's voice rang through the air. They were the ones who then also understood why it sounded as if there were thousands of Sasukes saying 'baka.' It worried them, of course, that two boys, not even genins, could produce so many copies of themselves after such a short time span, but when one looked at the boys' ancestry, muddled as it was, the surprise lessened into amazement. Of course, none of them could say they were happy about the scroll being in those two's possession, but there was nothing to be done about it. The Uchiha manor was like the most fortified military base – even the Hokage would be hard-pressed to break in. The scroll wasn't going to kill them, probably, so the boys would be left alone. It would take them a while to reach the most dangerous seals. Hopefully they wouldn't be able to perform those jutsus. Only the Hokage knew just how much danger those could be, as only he knew just what was inside that scroll, but when asked he simply shook his head and replied that they would only go as far as their limits. That was the end of that.  
  
Inside the manor, as could be expected, two boys were lying on the floor, nearly unconscious. The blonde haired boy grinned, turning his head to face the other.  
  
"Told ya I could do it."  
  
Sasuke grunted and rolled over to his stomach. After a few minutes he pushed himself to first his knees, then his feet and stood there shakily. Even with his balance so unsteady, he still offered a hand to Naruto, who was still lying on the floor panting. The boy slapped the hand away. By himself, Naruto rolled over and grabbed the scroll. It had taken them five days to learn the stupid jutsu. That was already more time than Naruto had ever spent on one thing in his entire life. Before, he'd always scraped by because he was the Hokage's son, adopted or not. It felt good to finally do something on his own. Slowly he pulled the scroll open and peered at the next jutsu. He barely managed a glimpse at it before a foot slammed down on his hand. The assault didn't particularly hurt, since the owner of said foot was exhausted, but it did stop him from reading on.  
  
"Sasuke!" whined Naruto, but the foot didn't move.  
  
"You still haven't even learned how to do it without the words. How are you going to fight if you're always telling the opponent what your next move will be?"  
  
Naruto sighed and struggled to his feet. He glared quickly at Sasuke and blinked. Suddenly five more Narutos appeared behind him. Sasuke stared. How could he still do anything at all? Five of them too. . . . "That's," he started, amazed. The clones disappeared as Naruto lost consciousness. "Really stupid," finished Sasuke, aggravated. After a quick struggle with his own body however, he too collapsed onto the hard wooden floor, unable to continue standing after five days of almost continuous charka use. In his sleep, he curled against the scroll, hiding it from any who might take it away.  
  
***  
  
"Sasuke! Open the gates! Sasuke! Naruto!"  
  
Sasuke cracked one eye open. Who the hell was calling him at such an ungodly hour?  
  
"Sasuke! Naruto! Get your asses out here now!"  
  
Iaka. Only Iaka-sensei would speak that way to them. There was a poof of smoke and Naruto appeared in front of him with Sasuke's double. The two clones shuffled tiredly toward the door while the originals crawled stealthily away. Really. Would it really have hurt her that much to give them another two days to recover from the charka use? Or a week. A week definitely would be appreciated.  
  
Outside, Iaka blinked as Naruto and Sasuke stumbled closer. There was something suspicious about them, though she couldn't pinpoint it exactly. Her eyes narrowed. Could someone have attacked them while they were spending the week alone? "Naruto, are you all right?" Her only answer was a half-hearted nod and a yawn. She scowled. Jeez. They could have a bit more consideration for her. She was holding off announcing the teams just for them.  
  
"Sasuke?" The boy didn't even bother to glare before pressing for the gates to open. He didn't ask for a password. Without another thought, Iaka threw kunai at the pair, blinking when they exploded in a cloud of smoke. Shadow clones? 'So the rumors were true,' she thought happily. If those two had really spent the week learning that sort of jutsu, they'd be dead tired now. It certainly looked that way at least, by the state of their clones. Grinning, she slipped towards the imposing house.  
  
"Hello Sasuke! Rise and shine!" Iaka poked the clone with a stick once before lopping off its head merrily. "Come on boys! I've gotta give you your exam now!" Not that they hadn't already passed it by producing so many shadow clones, but it'd be fun to make them think they're work was for nothing for the few minutes before she handed out their hitai-ate – their forehead protectors that symbolized their rank as true shinobi of the Hidden Leaf village of Konoha. At this rate though, they wouldn't be able to make any more clones for an exam. Each pair she ran into was even more poorly made than the last.  
  
Finally, upon stumbling around a pair that didn't even remotely resemble Naruto and Sasuke, she left. She'd just have to give them their forehead protectors some other time. One eye slid open on the yellow scribble passing for Naruto.  
  
"Is she gone?" asked the black scribble. The yellow one nodded as best it could without a head. In a puff of smoke, each turned into their respective counterparts – the yellow scribble into Naruto, the black into Sasuke.  
  
"Man! That was close – I thought she'd try decapitating us too!" exclaimed Naruto. Sasuke rolled his eyes, hoping Iaka-sensei was far enough away to miss the sudden racket. It seemed too suspicious that she would stop at that time.  
  
"Let's get to work on the next one," he muttered, pulling the scroll away from Naruto. He frowned. It felt different. Ripping it open, he stared in horror at the seal taking up the entire page. "Naruto! Run! It's a summoning –"  
  
"- Thank you Sasuke!" chirped Iaka. The boys groaned and turned to face her. "I've gotta say, you did a good job hiding from me. But!" –and here she pointed at Naruto- "The scribbles looked way too much like your first attempt at Bushin no Jutsu. So I knew it had to be you. By the way, here are your forehead protectors. Congratulations."  
  
Naruto stared at the cloth and metal headpiece in her hands in elation, and then glanced at Sasuke. The youngest Uchiha was biting his lip and glancing right back at him. He shook his head. Naruto's eyes widened – Sasuke didn't want it? Naruto did though. He'd spent his entire life with that as his goal in life. He wanted to become a strong ninja recognized as Naruto, not as the Hokage's possibly adopted son.  
  
"No thanks."  
  
Sasuke and Iaka's stared at Naruto, their eyes wide in shock. "Why," started Iaka. Naruto shook his head, smiling ruefully. He turned and slipped into the hallway, leaving Sasuke to choose what he would do. If Sasuke took the forehead protector, they knew Naruto would reconsider and take one as well. If Sasuke chose not to. . . .  
  
Author's Note: So is this any good so far? As a lot of people have pointed out to me, I know that I could make the characters as far out of character as I want without hurting the story. Why? Because it's an absolutely different timeline. Sasuke has a friend, Naruto isn't hated, Sakura... Well, Sakura's still Sakura, but she hasn't grown up hating Naruto. However, I really don't want to change their basic personalities. That would be like writing a fic about a bunch of original characters with the names of the canons. I can't, won't, do that. So if you find me starting to go out of character, please tell me. Sometimes I might want a little shift, in which case I'll just try to make sure to explain said shift, but otherwise I'll be sure to fix it as best I can. Thank you. 


	3. Something strange calls out for me

Sasuke stared after Naruto, ignoring Iaka for the time being. Why would Naruto have given up on his dream just like that? With the new scroll, they would have no trouble becoming stronger than the Hokage. Wasn't that what Naruto had always wanted – to prove that he was someone too?  
  
Iaka called his attention back to her, hesitantly offering the forehead protector to him. "Do you also forfeit your rank as genin? If you do, one student will have to retake the course. Are the two of you really that selfish?"  
  
Sasuke had been ready to answer, but this stopped him again. He glanced back to where Naruto had gone. "He's only doing this because of me," he thought uncertainly. "Who would – no." Naruto was the only one that mattered in this decision. He smirked, choice made. "No thank you. It's unnecessary."  
  
Iaka staggered back, confused. "Why would you two refuse the extra training . . . ?"  
  
"People become genins and go up from there in rank either because they need the challenge to push them to become stronger, or because they want to show off their strength." Sasuke snorted. "We're not them. Thank you, but you may leave now."  
  
Blinking, Iaka nodded. "I understand," she whispered. She turned to leave. "Good luck." Outside the door, she stared at her empty hands. Hopefully Sasuke wouldn't find the hitai-ate until she was too far away for him to return them.  
  
"Dobe. Why'd you give it all up like that?" Sasuke asked the empty room. Naruto could hear him, he was sure of it, but he got no reply. Shaking his head, he picked up the hitai-ate by the door. He'd known she'd leave them – that was the sort of person she was. What he didn't expect was the note:  
  
Sasuke and Naruto: Don't be surprised – reading people is really my only real ability, but I'm better at it than anyone else you know yet. You gave everything up to go after Itachi, right? In that case, I'll put you on a team with Haruno Sakura. The three of you will make up Team Seven, and you instructor will be Hatake Kakashi. He's currently on an ANBU mission and won't be able to teach you for a while, but that won't matter too much. Just focus on learning the things in that scroll, and you should become strong enough on your own. My only request is that you leave the village and take Sakura with you. That scroll contains high-level genjutsu, and I think that's what she could learn the most from. It'd be best for you, Naruto, to learn techniques that require enormous amounts of charka, and for you, Sasuke, to master the Sharingan. Once you do meet up with Kakashi, ask him to teach you Chidori too, all right? Come back for the Chuunin exams and don't get caught if hunter-nins come after you. I'll try to keep them off your back for as long as possible.  
  
Morochi Iaka  
  
"She's pretty good."  
  
Sasuke spun around to see Naruto with a pack on.  
  
"So are we picking up Sakura then? It was sort of her last request – it's the least we could do for her. Besides, I sure can't cook," Naruto added with a grin.  
  
Sasuke nodded with a slight grin of his own. "What took you so long?"  
  
Sticking out his tongue, Naruto grabbed the scroll, quickly checking that it wasn't a fake, and walked out the door. Sasuke frowned. Naruto must have realized that they'd be under surveillance and sneaking out would be suspicious if they were caught. Planning wasn't usually Naruto's thing. Sasuke didn't mention it though, simply walking next to the blonde, careful to look casual.  
  
Not twenty seconds after passing the gates of his manor, Sasuke spotted an approaching storm of fangirls. In the lead, as always, were Sakura and Ino. He sighed, glancing at the now smug Naruto. So he hadn't been trying avoid looking suspicious, but on using their fanclub's predictability to get Sakura. It was still pretty good planning, but not anywhere near as impressive.  
  
"Sasuke-kun! Naruto-kun!"  
  
Both boys winced at the shrill cry – the sound of their impending doom if they didn't move soon. Making only a slight change in their usual route of escape, they swept past the horde. It took several minutes before Ino and company realized that not only were the object of their affection no longer before them, but Sakura had gone missing as well. "Damn. Back to your houses girls! We try again tomorrow!" Following Ino's order, thirty or so girls wandered back into their usual routines looking only slightly disappointed. It always ended like this, although Sakura going missing as well was an unexpected change. None of them thought much of it though. Of all of them, she was probably the only one who truly had any feelings what- so-ever for the two boys. Ino surmised that she was probably at home crying or some other such thing. Maybe later she'd go comfort her.  
  
Meanwhile, Sakura was having some difficulty breathing, not because she'd been bound and gagged and was being held down completely without her permission, but because she'd been bound and gagged and was being held down completely without her permission by Sasuke and Naruto!  
  
"Oi. Calm down or we're leaving without you," muttered Naruto as he shifted his weight off her. Sasuke rolled his eyes – there was no way Naruto would leave without Sakura. He'd had a crush on her since before either boy could possibly hope to remember. She didn't know of course, which suited Naruto just fine. He didn't much care for how she liked him – it was too fanatical.  
  
Finally Sakura stopped struggling, alarm filling her eyes. "Mrefing?" The boys blinked and removed her gag. Immediately she began ranting. "How can you leave? You're the strongest, best, most popular guys in Konoha and you're leaving? Do you even have permission? If you don't you'll become missing-nins and –"  
  
"Shut up. We're leaving, we'll become missing-nins, and you're going with us."  
  
Sakura glared at Sasuke. "If you leave I'll –"she stopped, brow furrowed in confusiong. "I'm going with you?"  
  
Naruto grinned. "There! She said it, so now it's not really without consent so let's go!"  
  
Sasuke nodded and grabbed her arm. Sakura glanced about wildly. They may have been her lust objects for longer than she could remember, but what about her friends? What about her family?  
  
"Wait! Where are we going?!"  
  
Four minutes later they reached the gates of Konoha with Sakura still in tow and no long fighting them. She instead was merely watching the proceedings. After all, being kidnapped by the two most sought after guys in the village wasn't the worst thing that could happen to a girl, right?  
  
"Where do you three think you're going?"  
  
Sakura's eyes widened as the group came to an abrupt halt before a suspicious jounin. Sasuke quickly pulled her closer to hide her still bound hands. Sakura blushed, but realized she shouldn't say anything. If she did, and said the wrong thing, Naruto and Sasuke would get in trouble. At least, that's what would happen if she were any other fan, but she wasn't. She was Haruno Sakura. Using a simple rope untying jutsu, she freed herself and pushed back the still hesitating boys.  
  
"We have a mission for our new instructor. He's on a mission and so could come to escort us out, but acknowledged that we're capable of carrying it out on our own."  
  
The jounin raised and eyebrow and leaned back against the gate. "Who's your instructor then?"  
  
Sakura froze. She didn't know that yet. Luckily, Naruto stepped up to the man and smirked.  
  
"Hatake Kakashi. Do we need to report this to him?"  
  
The jounin straightened. "I – I'm sorry. I didn't know. Let them through!" He shouted to the other ninja gathering around. The trio grinned and walked through. Once past the gates, Naruto spun around.  
  
"All right Team Seven! Let's go!" 


End file.
